Characterization of Gas Diffusion Layers for PEMFC

By Minkmas V. Williams, E. Begg, L. Bonville, H. Kunz, James M. Fenton. 2004

376 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), gas diffusion layers serve as current collectors that allow ready access of fuel and oxidant to the anode and the cathode catalyst surfaces, respectively. Critical properties of five commercial and one in-house gas diffusion layers have been characterized and compared to determine factors limiting the oxygen transport in the cathode gas diffusion layer where there is no oxygen consumption. These properties are the limiting current, electronic resistivity, fraction of hydrophobic pores, gas permeability, pore size distribution, and surface morphology. Polarization curves using air and neat oxygen were collected to determine the air-limiting currents at three operating conditions: 80°C/75% relative humidity (RH) cathode inlet, 100°C/70% RH cathode inlet, and 120°C/35% RH cathode inlet, all at atmospheric pressure. Linear empirical relationships for permeability coefficient vs. limiting current were found at all three conditions. Characterization of the gas diffusion layers by porosimetry measurement provides the pore size distribution for the gas diffusion layers, which helps in understanding the correlation between the permeability coefficient and the limiting current at the temperatures and relative humidity tested.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fd1fa18685ad0254f0df0f6506525b91971d8333

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Citations in the corpus

A review of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells: Technology, applications,and needs on fundamental research (2011, methodology): “Cell performance using different DMs at: the 80 C/75% RH cathode inlet condition (a), the 100 C/70% RH cathode inlet condition [280] (b); 25/25% RH for anode/”
In-plane and through-plane gas permeability of carbon fiber electrode backing layers (2006, background): “[11] found the through-plane permeability for SGL 10BA and Toray 120 to be 31.”